In the 1972–73 season West Ham United finished sixth in the First Division, their highest League position under the management of Ron Greenwood and the joint-highest in their history at that time.

Pop Robson was the First Division's top scorer with 28 League goals, including eight doubles and a hat-trick, just one behind the post-war club record held by Geoff Hurst, who had left the Hammers for Stoke City the previous summer.

In February 1973, Bobby Moore overtook Jimmy Ruffell's West Ham appearance record.

He won his hundredth England cap in the same month.

Second Division Hull City beat them in the fourth round of the FA Cup, and the Hammers suffered a humiliating defeat at Fourth Division Stockport County in the League Cup.